Many products for sale to the public are placed in a primary package that is designed for display at the point of sale. Common practice is to place a quantity of the primary packages in a secondary container for shipping. The retailer must then remove the primary packages from the secondary container and hang them from a hook or place them in another container or on a shelf for display. One common practice is to remove the primary packages from the shipping container and place them on a costly permanent plastic or metal display fixture with spring loaded attachments. This solution is labor intensive and costly to the retailer.
To solve this problem, packages have been designed that are used for both shipping the primary packages and then displaying them at the point of sale. These packages are especially convenient for the retailer, since it is not necessary for the retailer to remove the articles from a bulk shipping container to refill an existing display tray.
In attempting to adapt a conventional shipping container for display of the product items held therein, a retailer might use a cutting implement to cut away a section of the shipping container to form an opening for display of and access to the product items. However, the use of cutting implements to open cases can damage the products and can weaken the container to the point that it cannot be safely stacked with other containers.
In an effort to provide a container more suitable for displaying products in a retail setting, containers have been developed which are convertible to an open display configuration upon reaching the point of sale. Containers of this variety include those of a generally tray-like configuration with a removable cover. Although representing an improvement over conventional corrugated shipping containers, these containers still offer somewhat limited product access, particularly when such containers are in the midst of a stack of containers extending above and below.
Another important consideration with the design of a shipping container convertible to a display container is the compatibility of the container with existing automated manufacturing and packaging equipment. Containers are typically made on automated production lines. Any suitable container design should be compatible with such production equipment. Further, the packagers typically use automated packaging lines which assemble the container from a flat knocked down state and load the container with goods prior to the container being closed. Any design of a shipping container convertible to a display container should be compatible with automated packaging equipment.
A further important consideration is economy of manufacture. Regular slotted carton (“RSC”) and half slotted carton (“HSC”) boxes have been known in the art of shipping containers for many years. The RSC and HSC boxes are highly economical shipping containers due to the fact that there is very little manufacturing waste. Further, due to their rectangular shape they are well suited to shipping goods via cargo container, truck, train, or any other means of transport in which efficient use of space is a priority. As a result, RSC and HSC boxes are widely used for shipping and storing many different types of goods.
The RSC and HSC boxes are each formed from a single rectangular blank, typically of corrugated paperboard and have four rectangular sidewall panels. The RSC box has flaps on both the top and bottom edges of the sidewalls, and the HSC box has flaps only on the bottom edges of the sidewalls. The HSC box typically is used with a separate lid or cover, or is inserted into another box that forms a closure for the open top. In order to erect these boxes from a rectangular blank, four crush folds are made parallel to the depth of the box to define the four sidewall panels, and further crush folds are made parallel to the length and width of the box to define upper and lower flaps in the case of a RSC box, or to form lower flaps in the case of a HSC box. Either style of box is articulated by folding along the crush folds so that the sidewall panels are disposed at right angles to one another and the flap panels are folded inwardly to close the top and bottom of the box (RSC) or the bottom of the box (HSC), with the flaps associated with the shorter sides of the box being folded inwardly first, followed by the flaps associated with the longer sides. The flaps are then secured in closed position by any suitable means, such as tape, adhesive, staples, etc. The bottom side of either style box typically is closed first, the desired goods are then inserted into the box, and the top side is then closed. However, the box may instead be articulated around the goods themselves and the top and bottom closed thereafter.
One significant disadvantage of the RSC and HSC boxes, however, is the fact that such boxes are not well suited for use as display containers in a retail environment. This is due to the fact that the goods within opened RSC and HSC boxes are not visible, other than from the top, unless a portion of one or more sidewall panels is first separated from the box by means of cutting or tearing. Not only does this require additional effort on the part of the retailer, it also tends to result in an unattractive display container having rough, uneven edges, which can be unsightly in the retail environment.
As a result, goods shipped in an RSC or HSC box typically are removed from the box upon arrival at the vending location and placed on shelves or into other containers for display, with the box then simply being discarded. This results in both a significant expenditure of time on the part of the retailer in transferring the goods from the shipping boxes to the display environment, as well as added expense in the form of shelving or display bins for such goods.
Accordingly, there is need for a shipping and display container that can utilize a RSC box design for shipping and storage and enables the container to be easily converted to a display container at the point of sale without requiring the use of cutting implements to form an access to the products.